Lecturer
Management of Organizations
Leading voice on Change, Leadership, and Impact; creator of "Becoming a Changemaker" course
About
Alex Budak is a UC Berkeley faculty member, co-founder of StartSomeGood, and the author of Becoming a Changemaker. An award-winning educator, he helps people find their voice, spark change, and create impact anywhere.
At UC Berkeley, Budak has faculty appointments at Berkeley Haas, Berkeley Public Health, and Berkeley Executive Education and teaches his beloved changemaker courses – which have even inspired student tattoos. He serves as Faculty Director for the Berkeley Changemaker Executive Education Program, and also directs Berkeley Haas Global Access Program.
His book Becoming a Changemaker is hailed by CNBC as a “top 5 non-fiction book everyone should be reading about work,” and is being published in 12 languages. His writing and work have been featured in The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, and INC.
Budak’s change journey began when he co-founded StartSomeGood, which has helped changemakers in over 50 countries raise millions of dollars to launch and scale new change initiatives. He’s a graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University, a frequent speaker at organizations like Accenture, Salesforce, and UNHCR, and once learned the hard way to never go budget skydiving.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Leadership
- Change
- Entrepreneurship
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Social Change
- Social Innovation
At Haas since 2016
2019- present Lecturer
2017- present Changemaker in Residence, Berkeley Haas
2016- present Director Berkeley Haas Global Access Program
2011- present Co-founder (now advisor), StartSomeGood
2013-15 Country Director, Sweden at Reach for Change
- Member, World Economic Forum Expert Network: Social Innovation
- Board Member, Konexio (present)
- Board Member, Peppy Pals (2016-present)
- Member, Sandbox Network
- Faculty Advisor, Net Impact Berkeley
- Advisor, College Leap
- UC Berkeley, School of Public Health
- UCLA’s Recent Graduate of the Year (2017)
- Real Leaders Magazine 100 Visionary Leaders for a Better World
- Diplomatic Courier’s Foreign Policy Top 99 under 33
- Friends of Europe: Top 10 North American Young Leader under 40
- YouthActionNet Global Fellow, Social Enterprise
Classified: Empowering undergrads to be changemakers, Berkeley Haas News, 04/03/2019
‘New Berkeley changemaker’ course turns self-discovery into tool for change, Berkeley News, 07/01/2020
Finding the changemakers of tomorrow, Forbes, 08/21/2019
UGBA 159: Becoming a Changemaker
FT/EWMBA 259: Becoming a Changemaker
UGBA C12 / L&S C12: The Berkeley Changemaker
Berkeley Executive Education: Berkeley Changemaker Program